Drax240z

201.2 miles in 2 days, no highway. A good couple of days, nice to drive it again! It's going to be hard to park for the winter and move back to house renovations without touching the Z. (well, I am sure I will a bit anyway)

Update for me... Engine: 2.9L, N42 block bored to 87mm, 140mm Crower rods, BRP forged pistons, 8.5:1 CR, knife edged crank, shaved P90 with "A" cam, spraybar, turbo/auto oil pump, O-ringed block, ARP head studs, ARP mains, 60mm TB Turbo: T3/T04e 50 trim 0.63A/R Intake: 60mm TB with N42 Intake EFI: 440cc/min injectors, SDS EM-3E, Walbro GL392, Stock fuel tank with sump added Intercooler: "Medium" NPR, 2.75" I/C plumbing Downpipe and Exhaust: 2.5" DP to 3" Exhaust. All mandrel bent.

Anything from a Z or ZX, 70-83 will work.

I am going to move this to a forum where people can reply. In the member's forum only the admins and the topic starter can reply to a thread.

Good news. Put the temp. insurance on this weekend for Saturday/Sunday to drive the car, break in the new motor before the season turns. A few hiccups though. Took the car out, put some fuel and air in it, didn't think it was running all that great. Headed to the car wash (it's really dirty from sitting) and sprayed it down. Had a buddy stop by while I was there and we got chatting, checked cylinders and low and behold #2 wasn't doing much. Headed home to check it out. Powered up injectors 1 by 1, and #2 would not open. Dead injector. Tried to find a replacement, and luckily we know some supra guys around, and scored a set of 6 440cc/min supra turbo (same as I have in the car) injectors for $25. Got new seals for another $30 from the parts store. Pulling #2, looks like my Russell hose fiasco of a few days ago was worse than I thought, not only did they leak but they disintegrated and plugged up ONLY #2 injector for some reason. So plugged up I couldn't save it. New injector installed and we're good to go! So after that it went ok. I put 83.6miles on the car, all while varying load and rpm (no highway) to seat the rings. I am hoping to hit 200miles by the end of the day tomorrow, a number in which I'll be pretty comfortable with as far as considering the rings seated well, and the engine ready for the winter. Felt good to drive the Z again... it's not really very streetable, but I will work on that...

Warren, are you using any type of idle air control valve?

Idle RPM is 750 on the SDS, tach says 850 or so. Idle advance is 20°.

Having trouble getting the idle in my engine as smooth as I think it should be. Manifold pressure at idle is about -15. What are you guys getting? EM-3E system No IAC, no cold start 440cc/min supra injectors New plugs, wires, engine, head, etc. Also curious to know who else is running SDS these days?

I used that method with the MSD set of universal wires I had. There was one in the set long enough to do that.

Well, another item ready to go just before the first drive. (this weekend?) Have a few more km/h speedo decals if anyone wants one, PM for details please.

To complete the loop, here is the final result: I'm 90% happy with it, the only issue being my installation. I will install it back in the car this weekend and take a few more photos. If anyone is interested, I have another vinyl decal that I may be willing to part with. PM please.

Sticky!

Heh, wow. I can't believe you guys get it down there... it's a special type of show, that's for sure. If you like that, I recommend Strange Brew as well...

Yeah I've been looking at double rows or longer strips as an option, which is why I ask. Could you do a longer strip and bend it back tightly on itself to create a double row, or is the LED strip not flexible enough to do that?

The 3rd light doesn't look very bright when compared with stock in this photo, how does it compare in person?

Looking really good!

I find the 3.54 works well at my local events - mostly slow speed slaloms. I rarely if ever shift out of 2nd gear, and with more torque on tap as V8/Turbo swaps tend to have, the car pulls from 2500rpm in slow speed corner exits and right to redline.

Muahahaha. It runs. Cleaning up the main cables, adding another ground cable and cleaning every connection I could find as well as a full charge on the battery and everything is fine. Lots of little odds and ends to take care of, but engine is ready for it's first oil change and then to put it down and make sure it's got brakes, etc. before getting a T.O.P. and going for a RIP...

Actually I am pretty sure the felpro RTV is high temp copper. Same colour anyway!

And the plot thickens... Turns out I left the key on overnight after the leaking fuel pulled me away. End result, dead battery this morning... will have to charge that overnight. Replaced braided stainless -6 fuel line in the rear, re-pressurize fuel system, and all the other braided lines are seeping as well. Went off, bought some new line after wandering around hells half acre, first place wanted $11 per foot for -6! Stupid. Ended up getting it for $6/ft in the end, still not great but saved myself $50 for half an hour more of looking around. Fuel system totally fitted, leak free! Tried jumping the car, no dice. Something a bit wonky electrically. Pulled off the positive and negative cables, will clean them up well and reinstall. Feels like the car has a bad ground somewhere that I need to find. Unfortuantely I ran out of time tonight... early start tomorrow to trouble shoot electrical gremlins now. The moral of this story: letting a car sit can have a lot of side effects you don't plan on...

High temp copper RTV. Remember, this is just a smear around the coolant passages, I'm not trying to compensate for warpage or anything like that. The cylinders (ie: where the pressure is) will seal very well without the RTV. I am trying to seal a 13psi passage that has a 0.001"-0.002" gap at worst... it won't take much. If it's a problem this time around, last resort is tearing down a $5000 bottom end and starting with a new block.

What I found was not much. Best guess is that the O-ring grooves were machined too far from the cylinder bore, and too close to the coolant passages, causing the coolant passages to not seal very well. Added a bunch of copper high-tack to the gasket, put a finger smear of RTV around each coolant passage (and I mean a tiny smear) and all is well this time around. Block was flat. Head was flat.

Reassembled today, nothing wrong with head or deck. Looks like the problem is due to the O-ring grooves being too far away from the cylinder bore. I bought some copper gasket spray, sprayed it like crazy and it seems to have worked. Tried to fire up this evening only to find one of my AN fuel lines was done... will have to pick up some more -6 tomorrow morning to replace it. Getting there... got oil pressure, no coolant leaks, electrical is a go... just fuel system replacements now.

Well, this sucks. First fit the felpro/O-ring combo and had coolant leaking out the passenger side of the head/block connection at cylinder #2. Tore it down, measured the o-rings at 0.017" proud of the deck. My research combined with posts here indicates the desirable crush is 0.006"-0.013". Put in the new Ishino head gasket, with no O-rings in place. Coolant leaking out of the same side next to #4. @#$%^*(#$^#@$&*#@!!!! I'm kindof at a loss... the block and head were both decked...

You guys have it right, I'm thinking there was some confusion earlier in the thread though.